My Review of Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

 

Written by Guy Busick And R. Christopher Murphy

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin And Tyler Gillett

Faith (to Grace): "I'm really not used to people combusting all over me."

In 2019, Radio Silence gave audiences Ready Or Not with Samara Weaving as beleaguered bride Grace MacCaullay. It was a massive hit, which meant a sequel had to happen. I think the problem with this sequel might have been timing.

Perhaps it was too long between movies because I'm genuinely mystified as to why this follow up hasn't hit like the first one. Maybe it's also the fact that while this one added more mythology, it just didn't feel big enough for audiences to return for seconds. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out.

Anyways, Grace didn't have time to process the fact that the Le Domas family tried to kill her on her wedding. Nope, she ended up in hospital, was under suspicion of murder and then reunited with her younger sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton). Oh and both sisters are kind of mad with one another as well.

On top of all of that, both Grace and Faith ended up being kidnapped by the other families, whom like the La Domas clan are also under the same deal with Mr Le Bail (James Vanderbilt) as they were. Elijah Wood popped up as Le Bail's neutral party lawyer while also laying out the rules.

Grace and Faith had to be handcuffed and hunted by six families during another game of hide and seek. If they survive until dawn, they're free. If they don't, the winning family would be seated at the highest table and practically control the world. Needless to say the families in question were desperate to kill those sisters.

The most memorable family of course are Danfoth family. Homicidal twins Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy). They're an absolutely brilliant counterpart to both Grace and Faith. While Grace and Faith's relationship gradually repaired as the movie went on, the exact opposite happened with Ursula and Titus. Oh and there was another wedding that wouldn't have looked out of place on Game Of Thrones.

The other families aren't as well developed but they do get some very funny and often brutal deaths. I had to laugh at the sheer incompetence of Ignacio El Caido (Nestor Carbonell) as well as his embittered daughter, Francesca (Maia Jae). The latter's unbridled hatred for Grace led to one of the best fight scenes in the movie and set to one hell of a song as well.

- The families fighting for survival were Danforth, Xing, Rajan, El Caido and Wilkinson. Kevin Durand played the head of the latter.

- The movie really upped the Satanism but while we got plenty of human deaths, the goat survived. Grace also got a black wedding dress during her near marriage to Titus.

- Originally the director pitched a different movie with sisters before this idea got made into this sequel.

- Faith's look was a homage to Buffy Summers. It was recently revealed that Kathryn Newton was going to be a part of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.

- Standout music: Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

- Chronology: Takes place from where the first movie left off. Grace and Faith are three years apart in age and hadn't seen each other in seven years.

I really wish this movie was doing better because Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come in my opinion turned out to be a great follow up. A brilliant double act with Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton, fun villains, more lore building and some batshit deaths. I had so much fun with this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Ready Or Not (2019)

 

Written by Guy Busick And R. Christopher Murphy

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin And Tyler Gillett

Grace (to Alex): "I want a divorce."

Ah, wedded life, eh? It should be the greatest thing in the world but for this movie, an argument can definitely be made for being single. Or at the very least researching your betrothed's family.

That was definitely something that the slightly mysterious Grace (Samara Weaving) should've done. Aside from being revealed as a foster child, there's not much else revealed about Grace as a character. That's not a criticism in a sense, just an observation. She's a bit of a blank canvass as a character who ended up getting thrown into quite the life and death situation.

Marrying into the obscenely wealthy Le Domas family by marrying son, Alex (Mark O'Brien), Grace knew that the family she was marrying into didn't quite like her but she wasn't prepared for a game of hide and seek that would end up in a ritual sacrifice if she was caught.

It seemed that a long time ago, the Le Domas family made a deal with Belial and every once in a while they have to sacrifice someone marrying into the family or they die themselves. This was something that parents Tony (Henry Czerny) and Becky (Andie MacDowell) were keen to avoid, being the most determined to avoid death along with daughter, Emelie (Melanie Scrofano), aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni) and daughter in law, Charity (Elyse Levesque).

All of these characters along with Emelie's idiotic husband, Fitch (Kristian Bruun) and the butler, Stevens (John Ralston) go out of their way to try and kill Grace but most of the time, it was the unfortunate staff getting killed instead. Meanwhile alcoholic son Daniel (Adam Brody) went from trying to kill Grace to helping her survive until the crack of dawn.

As for Grace and Alex's relationship, it was never going to survive this and predictably, it didn't. Alex did try to help Grace for most of the movie and did seem reluctant to actually help his family kill her but he also turned on her too and sealed his own fate. In the end, Grace barely got out of this movie alive.

- Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt, both of whom would go on to write the fifth and sixth Scream movies have very brief cameos in the movie.

- The opening flashback saw Helene's husband go through the same game. Needless to say, he didn't survive but Helene felt a bond with Alex, who saw Belial as a child.

- Standout music: Love Me Tender, The Hide & Seek Song and Bossa Noches.

- Chronology: The flashback was in the 1980s with this movie being set in the 2010s.

Ready Or Not was a blast of a movie. A great but deadly take on Hide and Seek with a top notch cast, some inventive kills and a comeuppance for the family reminiscent of hiw vampires used to die in True Blood. Great stuff.

Rating: 8 out of 10